The Manner of Our Piety

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 145:1-2, 21
• Psalm — I Will Forever Bless Your Name (Psalm 145b, stanzas 1–4, 12)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 160
• Hymn — Song of Mary (#301)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — Day by Day and with Each Passing Moment (#255)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Manner of Our Piety

Scripture: Titus 2:11-14

I. The Disciplines of Our Piety (v. 12)

A. Context: the two appearances of Christ

1. The first appearing — the Incarnation: grace and salvation have come in Christ (Titus 2:11; cf. Luke 1:79); salvation for all kinds of people, fulfilling the promise of Genesis 12
2. The second appearing — the future return of "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13); Christ's deity affirmed
3. The disciplines are lived out in "the present age" — the era between the two comings (cf. 2 Peter 3:11)

B. The grace of God trains us (Titus 2:12); there is an educating power in grace (Donald Guthrie)

C. Negatively: we are trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions

1. Ungodliness — living without regard for God or his will
2. Worldly passions — Calvin: "unbridled love of evil"; what belongs to our former selves apart from Christ
3. To renounce means to deny their power and place in our lives

D. Positively: we are trained to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives

1. Self-controlled — the discipline of piety within ourselves; to live soberly with conscious mastery over unchecked appetites and activities; Calvin: without this we are like stampeding cattle
2. Upright — the discipline of piety with others; living justly toward our neighbors; fulfilling the second table of the law (Matthew 7:12); honoring authorities and seeking the good of others in home, church, work, and civic life
3. Godly — the discipline of piety before God; all of life lived coram Deo; loving God through obedience to his moral law in all spheres of life

E. Such piety is possible only because of Christ's justifying work and the Spirit's sanctifying work (cf. Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

II. The Dispositions of Our Piety (vv. 13–14)

A. Disciplines and dispositions belong together; Paul is equally concerned with how we practice piety, not only what we do

B. First disposition: hope-filled waiting (Titus 2:13)

1. The Christian lives in a state of waiting for "our blessed hope" — the personal return of Jesus Christ
2. Hope here is not a wish but the assured object of expectation; "faith is the assurance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1)
3. As the expectation of a wedding day seasons all the days leading up to it for a bride, so the hope of Christ's appearing seasons all the hard days of duty and denial for the Christian
4. This disposition works backward upon all the waiting days, making them better days

C. Second disposition: eager working (Titus 2:14)

1. Christ gave himself for us unto two purposes:
   • To redeem us from all lawlessness — to free us from captivity to sin (cf. Exodus 19:5)
   • To purify for himself a people for his own possession — drawing on the "peculiar treasure" language of Exodus 19:5 (Guthrie)
2. This purified people is marked by being zealous for good works — fervently, passionately eager to do what is good in God's eyes
3. God desires not mere outward compliance but hearts that delight to obey; a disposition the preacher acknowledges we often fail to fully attain
4. We are not saved by our works or dispositions, but God by his Spirit is actively shaping both — working in us as we are justified by grace through faith

D. Conclusion: the Spirit uses hope-filled waiting and growing eagerness to season our disciplines, so that we adorn the doctrine of God (Titus 2:10) — making beautiful in our lives what we believe and confess